Identify a challenge, map it, break it down and solve it.

It goes without saying that the ability to deliver legal services in an accurate, efficient and consistent manner is essential to success. But sometimes that goal can get bogged down by manual, repetitive tasks.

Here is where the application of expert reasoning and automation technology could help play a role.

As explained by McClead, knowledge engineering is the process by which a challenge is identified, mapped, broken down and solved.

The use of knowledge engineering can help you to:

Better understand the intuitive processes used everyday

Define and refine processes

Establish consensus and standardize

Save time and money in development

This can be applied to different common use-cases for expert systems in the legal industry, many of which were reviewed during this workshop.

Central to the workshop was the use of a “Knowledge Engineering Framework,” which helps users outline the description of a problem, break it down into multiple elements and outline the type of outputs one would expect at the end of the application. See image below:

With help from attendees, the group collectively built out three apps in real time, which provided automated advice on a range of different challenges.

Throughout it all, McClead stressed the importance of the upfront work that goes into the process. He said “It is important to work with your team to establish a consensus on what should be done. From there, it becomes easier to work through the complexity to make the product simple.”

Session attendee Chandler Lauzon, director of business development with Bennett Jones LLP, said it had a “real design thinking feel.” He enjoyed the hands-on aspects that let participants look under the hood of the Neota Logic system to start to scope how to solve real problems. “Also, it was good to collaborate with colleagues on the client side, and understand how both sides benefit from good tools,” he added.